WIDHOC, the company awarded the contract for the “Implementation Project for the Introduction of Precision Agriculture and Aquifer Monitoring in the Campo de Cartagena Irrigation Community,” together with INAM, has completed half of the work since late August.
This project, a pioneer in the environmental monitoring of water, soil, plant, and atmospheric parameters related to crop cultivation, will collect data from 44,000 hectares in the Mar Menor region to optimize irrigation.
The project by the Department of Water, Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, and the Environment relies on equipment from the company WIDHOC: the D-WIDE data loggers, which have been presented as the best solution for improving the sustainability of irrigation, verifying efficiency and optimization in irrigation water consumption compared to traditional irrigation methods, and ensuring compliance with Law 3/2020 on the Recovery and Protection of the Mar Menor.
These systems use renewable energy—specifically, solar power—and allow for the precise adjustment of irrigation water usage by monitoring soil, plant, and environmental parameters with high accuracy. In addition to improving irrigation efficiency, they optimize fertilization and help reduce energy consumption on the farm.
The data received by this network of probes—a global pioneer in terms of the level of monitoring—is validated by the technical team at WIDHOC and its collaborators at the Segura Center for Soil Science and Applied Biology (CEBAS / CESIC) for processing and subsequent use by the Campo de Cartagena Irrigation Community.
Fifty flow meters, 25 rain gauges, and 25 piezometers are being installed to monitor the aquifer, enabling the measurement of soil moisture at various depths, the electrical conductivity of the saturated soil solution, as well as ambient and soil temperature and relative humidity, and changes in the aquifer level, among other factors.
Farmers in the region can register at this website https://forms.gle/GBNGiSjraZewdfFC7 to access the surveys.
This project is funded by ERDF grants in collaboration with the Department of Water, Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, and the Environment of the Region of Murcia.
